Dave General

Yesterday I received a box full of giant monster goodness courtesy of my favorite Godzilla retailer (yes, there are more than one) Chibi Goji Toys, and while trying to figure out how to work a half dozen more vinyl figures onto my existing display shelf, I was inspired to photograph the assembled horde. Pardon the size of the photos, dial-up users, but Godzilla and his friends beg to be large.

Great gallopin’ Godzillas!

Mothra Squadron ready for takeoff!

Three generations of robot Godzillas.

Evil is on the march!

Earth’s monsters stand ready to defend the planet!

Destroy! All! Monsters!

Angilas finds himself outmatched by Mothra and Godzilla Jr.

All insects attack!

Dueling Godzillas and Ghidorahs!

Dave Toys action figures, Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra

Are we so hard up for another hit of Harry Potter that we’ll drop $90 million on a film adaptation of some 15-year-old’s D&D campaign? I was rolling up characters with names like “Galbatorix” when I was his age and no one was waving a fat publishing check at me.

Why do those Apple commercials make me like Mac owners even less? I like both John Hodgman and Justin Long, and yet when I see those ads, I want to smack the latter into next week. Smug little bastard. Yeah, I’m sure your little box is great, and I’ll get one as soon as I don’t ever want to run any third-party game software.

Speaking of advertising, why are the chain retailers still promoting the PS3 and the Wii? Everyone who wants one already knows about them, and it’s not like they’ll be in stock when they get there. Same goes for game software: if you have a system, you already know you want something to play, and if you don’t, they’re very expensive coasters.

Dave Rant

Here’s a fun bit of viral marketing, courtesy Lucasarts: Death Star Designer, a game in which you are tasked to engineer the Empire’s ultimate weapon to Grand Moff Tarkin’s precise specifications (and stay within the Imperial budget).

My sporty battle wagon is done up in Bespin Purple hull plating, and features a swank spoiler and a Ferris wheel for the little clones.

Dave Star Wars

One of the problems with writing a blog is that it comes with the expectation that you will occasionally post something, even if you are crazy busy and/or have nothing worthwhile to write about. Both of those factors have come into play at various times over the past several weeks. However, now that things are settling down a bit at work, here’s some random fodder for the blog beast.

First up is some happy news for me: it appears that I’ve finally been successful in my efforts to acquire the new Doctor Who for my station. I’d been trying for a couple of years, only to see it eventually wind up on cable. Official word is still forthcoming, but it looks like I’ll have it for March. Better late than never, I say.

Next, there’s the weird “controversy” over the alleged “straightening” of a gay character on NBC’s Heroes. Zach was a third-string member of the huge ensemble cast, the best friend of Claire the cheerleader. While he never “came out” in the context of the series, he was clearly coded as homosexual. This week, actor Thomas Dekker’s management that his character was straight after all, and this was later confirmed by NBC and by the creator of Heroes himself, who apologized for “misleading” viewers.

I found the incident curious for several reasons. Suspicions were immediately raised that the change was due to pressure from NBC, but in this day and age, it seems unlikely that a network would even care about a minor character’s sexual orientation, much less wish to invite a P.R. flap over it. Furthermore, the actor has just been cast in a TV spin-off of the Terminator franchise, and if the events of the “fall finale” of Heroes are any indication, his character has been effectively written out of the storyline. So, why this tempest in a teapot?

According to TV Guide, the blame may be laid at Dekker’s management, who are allegedly concerned about their client’s reputation, never mind that he’s already played several gay characters. Again, weird.

The last couple of weeks have found me in what appears now to be an annual tradition: culling the inhabitants of my toyroom. It had been about a year since I’d sold anything on eBay, and my collection had reached a point at which it appeared likely to collapse in upon itself and form a singularity from which neither light nor gravity would escape.

So I am rediscovering both the pleasures and frustrations of eBay. I’ll give eBay a lot of credit; over the past couple of years, they have added a number of features that greatly reduce the amount of work needed to complete an auction (and, most importantly, get paid). Yet there’s one thing that they can never completely fix: I am still required to deal with other people. And people are often weird, and occasionally annoying.

So far, my auctions have gone rather smoothly. Wave One has been shipped, Wave Two is wrapping up tonight, and Wave Three was photographed last night for listing later this week. I anticipate at least one more wave beyond that. (I told you I had a lot of stuff.) I am pleased to be part of the Great Circle of Crap.

An update: previously I’d been suggesting that Lost would be back on the air sooner rather than later due to the failure of its temporary replacement, Day Break. Turns out I was half right: Day Break is being sent out to the farm to play with the other dogs, but comedies will fill the slot instead. When Lost does return, it’ll be an hour later, so as to avoid the fire-belching juggernaut that is American Idol.

That’s all for now. Go back to amusing yourselves.

Dave General